What's Up - Your guide to what's happening in Fayetteville, AR this week!
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NOVEMBER 21-27, 2021 WHAT'S UP! 9 look at how the sea has shaped, not only our interest, but our nation." Visitors can explore a diverse range of works by modern and historical artists, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Amy Sherald, Kay WalkingStick, Norman Rockwell, Hale Woodruff, Paul Cadmus, Thomas Hart Benton, Jacob Lawrence, Valerie Hegarty and Stuart Davis. Some social conversations for the exhibit begin in the "In Port" section, as curators say artists have long promoted idealized visions and social realities of labor and leisure connected to the nation's ports. "The Fleet's In" by Paul Cadmus presents a colorful array of boisterous sailors and their romantic interests. Created in 1934 for an exhibition in Washington, D.C., the piece presents a rowdy image of Fleet Week that curators say encountered controversy for its open depiction of queer desire. It's difficult to discuss America's relationship with the seas without also considering the nation's connection to the transatlantic slave trade, histories of enslavement and economies of slavery that supported a great deal of maritime commerce, Bailly pointed out during a media preview of the exhibition Nov. 4. "It's a very important part of this exhibition," she said. "Sea Sick," a mixed media piece created in 2014 by Nick Cave, features vintage paintings of ships at sea surrounding an antique tobacco jar depicting a racist, Black stereotype that's set between raised hands and topped by a wall hanging of a sailing ship rendered in gold plastic. The piece shows how the original sales of the items comprising the work served as agents of A book titled "Study of Sails, Anchors and Burgees" by William Formby Halsall is displayed as part of the Crystal Bridges' new temporary exhibition, "In American Waters: The Sea in American Painting." (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Charlie Kaijo) "In American Waters" co-curator Austen Barron Bailly discusses the painting "The Immigrants" by Theresa Bernstein during a Nov. 4 media preview of the museum's new temporary exhibition. The collection of some 90 works reveals marine painting to be much more than ship portraits — with sections exploring immigration, the transatlantic slave trade, horizons, the beachcombing hobby and sea shanties, among other themes. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Charlie Kaijo) "Sea Sick," a mixed media piece created in 2014 by Nick Cave, features vintage paintings of ships at sea surrounding an antique tobacco jar depicting a racist, Black stereotype that's set between raised hands and topped by a wall hanging of a sailing ship rendered in gold plastic. "In American Waters" co-curator Austen Bailly notes that the piece shows how the original sales of the items comprising the work served as agents of oppression, rather than opportunities for commerce and invention. (NWA Democrat-Gazette/Charlie Kaijo) "America's Cup defender, sloop yacht Vigilant," 1893, oil on canvas by William Formby Halsall, is on display during "In American Waters." (Peabody Essex Museum, Gift of Frederic A. Turner, 1961) (Courtesy Image/Peabody Essex Museum) "Southern Cross in Boston Harbor," 1851, oil on canvas by Fitz Henry Lane, is also included in "In American Waters." (Peabody Essex Museum, Gift of Stephen Wheatland, 1980, M18639) (Courtesy Image/Peabody Essex Museum) See Waters Page 37